Volkswagen
AG , attorneys for the U.S. government and angry customers are set to announce
a package of measures valued at up to $15 billion to resolve the German car
maker’s emissions-cheating scandal in the U.S., though European owners of
nearly three million tainted vehicles may go empty-handed.

Lawyers
representing the plaintiffs are scheduled to file documents with the Federal
District Court of Northern California in San Francisco on Tuesday. The
documents will include details of an agreement thrashed out since February in
marathon sessions among attorneys for the three sides.

Volkswagen
has agreed to provide compensation for U.S. car owners worth about $10 billion,
including an offer to buy back nearly 500,000 affected vehicles and provide car
owners additional compensation of between $5,100 and $10,000, according to
people familiar with the deal.

Volkswagen
declined to comment on the details of the agreement with plaintiffs.

Federal
Judge Charles Breyer will hold a so-called status conference to discuss the
filing with all parties on June 30, but a decision won't be made until July at
the earliest.

U.S.
environmental authorities disclosed in September that Volkswagen had
manipulated diesel engines to recognize when they were undergoing emissions
tests in the laboratory, causing the engines to emit legally allowed levels of
toxic nitrogen oxides during tests but exceed those limits in real traffic.

Volkswagen
has since admitted to rigging nearly 11 million vehicles world-wide to cheat on
emissions tests and faces civil and criminal investigations in the U.S., Europe
and Asia.

Several
lawsuits have been filed in Germany on behalf of investors, including large
pension funds such as Calpers, the Norwegian state oil fund, and Nordea,
a Swedish investment fund. German courts have yet to rule on allowing
class-action suits to go forward, a stricter process than in the U.S.

News
of the impending agreement to compensate U.S. customers has raised concern in
Brussels that the much larger number of European customers who bought tainted
diesel-powered vehicles from Volkswagen wouldn't receive equal compensation
from the German car maker.

“Volkswagen
should voluntarily offer compensation for European car owners that is
comparable to what is being paid to U.S. consumers,” said Elzbieta Bienkowska,
European Industry and Internal Market Commissioner.

Volkswagen
has repeatedly said that it sees no reason to compensate European customers
because of differences in U.S. and European law and environmental standards.
Under EU rules, the company has said, Volkswagen’s diesel vehicles don't
violate emissions standards.

It has
also said that the vehicles containing the illegal software can be more easily
repaired in Europe. Volkswagen is recalling nearly three million vehicles in
Europe to remove the defeat devices and make the cars compliant with the law.

Nevertheless,
European officials, consumer groups and plaintiffs’ attorneys in say Volkswagen
should compensate European victims to regain customers’ trust.

“Consumers
have been massively misled by Volkswagen and this settlement in the U.S.
recognizes the damage suffered by car drivers,“ said Monique Goyens, general
director of the European Consumer Organization, a Brussels-based consumer
lobby. ”It is inconceivable that consumers in the EU get treated
differently."

"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs